BARRHEAD-If it had happened a week later or if the period of warm weather had started a few days earlier, the outcome might have been different.
That is what Barrhead Regional Fire Services (BRFS) chief Gary Hove had to say regarding a single-vehicle accident that occurred near Barrhead last week.
On March 18, just after 7 p.m., firefighters were called out to a single-vehicle accident on Highway 654 East, where a driver, travelling west, had gone off the road near the Lunnford Bridge spanning the Pembina River, landing in the middle of the river on top of its frozen surface.
Miraculously, the lone vehicle occupant was not seriously hurt.
"They entered the ditch just before the bridge and went up the guardrail," he said, adding it then went into the air and dropped a more than respectable distance before hitting the bank and coming to a stop, wheel side down in the middle of the river.
"He had some injuries, of course, and he was taken to the Barrhead hospital by EMS, but it could have been a lot worse."
Hove added that he believes the main factor in the accident was probably a lack of visibility.
"The sun was pretty low in the sky," Hove said.
The incident allowed firefighters to practice some of the techniques they learned during a cold water training course about one month prior.
"We didn't have to don our cold water suits, but we definitely put some of the things we learned from the course into practice," he said. Had the warm spell the area has been experiencing started a little sooner, or if a similar accident happens in a week or two, how the result of this incident and how the department approaches it could have been different, Hove noted.
"That is why we take the cold water rescue course to prepare for these types of eventualities."
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
